The topic of this master´s thesis is a design of high-pressure washer designed for hobby and semi-professional users. The work deals with analysis of current state of knowledge, basic technical parameters and the design of high pressure washer. The goal of this thesis is to create a new product that will meet technical, ergonomic and aesthetic requirements.

The thesis explores the existing urban landscape of Jeppestown, specifically with regard to the consequences of the hijacking of inner-city buildings for residential purposes. The aim is to reclaim public space from the post-industrial landscape and reconfigure the existing fabric, by means of a fragile intervention so as to connect the social realm with the built fabric. The project accepts the hijacked typology of urban living as part of the context. It is viewed as an existing and ongoing condition, which far exceeds the current capacity of state-funded housing. From this stance, the project aims to provide public services that celebrate the rituals of washing in a meaningful and accessible way. The project endeavours to utilise theories related to African space to address local contemporary urban issues contextually. It uses the rituals of the everyday as a muse for creating eventful public space, an amenity which is becoming increasingly important with the growing densities of South Africa’s cities. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

Among current technologies used for the treatment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) -contaminated media, adsorption has been reported to offer relatively high PAH removal efficiency while being rapid and cost-effective. Therefore, the main goal of this research was to assess and optimize the adsorption process for the removal of PAHs from contaminated water and soil using recoverable magnetic activated carbon-based composites. In the first phase, 6 different composites, 3 magnetic powder activated carbon (MPAC) composites and 3 magnetic granular activated carbon (MGAC) composites, were synthesized, and then, characterized using XRD, FE-SEM, EDS, and FTIR methods. The adsorption experiments revealed that all the recoverable MPACs and MGACs were capable of removing the PAHs from water, with removal percentages ranging from 87.2 to 99.3%. The PAH-loaded MPAC and MGAC with the highest PAH removal efficiency were also subjected to a series of desorption studies. The results indicated that the PAHs desorption was in the range 38.1-60.1% for low molecular weight (LMW) PAHs and 23.4 to 57.2% for the high molecular weight (HMW) PAHs. In the second phase, the adsorption kinetics and isotherms studies were performed on MPAC synthesized by a precipitation (MPAC-Prec.) method, which showed the highest PAH removal efficiency among the prepared magnetic activated carbons (MACs). The PAHs adsorption by MPAC-Prec. was rapid, reaching equilibrium in 6 h with the removal efficiency ranging from 95.6 to 100.0% under the conditions of this study. Among the studied kinetics models, pseudo-second order fitted the experimental data very well, implying that all the MPAC adsorption sites had an equal affinity for PAHs. The results of the kinetic studies also indicated that the greater molecular weight PAHs had a slower adsorption rate due to the slower transfer of their molecules to the MPAC adsorption sites. With an R2 in the range 0.73-0.96, the Langmuir model described the isotherms adsorption of LMW and HMW PAHs better than the other isotherms models. Furthermore, according to the Langmuir model, the maximum adsorption capacity of MPAC-Prec. was determined to be between 8.7 and 11.4 µg/mg for the LMW PAHs, and 8.4 and 20.2 µg/mg for the HMW PAHs. In the third phase, a series of soil washing tests using MGAC synthesized by co-precipitation (MGAC-CoP) method, were carried out to explore the effect of MAC on the PAHs removal from soil. The employed MGAC was the second most efficient MAC in the PAHs adsorption experiments (first phase of research), and it showed greater recovery from soil washing mixture compared to the MPAC-Prec. in the preliminary tests. The MGAC-CoP composite had a surface area and total pore volume of 837.9 m2/g and 0.5 cm3/g, respectively, which were approximately 10% lower than the bare GAC, according to BET test results. Soil washing parameters were optimized for the treatment of a real contaminated soil, which were MGAC-CoP dose of 2% (w/w), washing time of 24 h, liquid to soil ratio of 15:1, stirring speed of 100 rpm, pH of 8.3, and temperature of 25 ˚C. Under these optimized conditions, an average PAHs removal of 47.4% was obtained. Among the LMW and HMW PAHs, anthracene (ANT), and fluoranthene (FLUO) showed the highest affinity to MGAC during the treatment process, with 57.7% and 67.1% removal from soil, respectively. The thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption of the LMW and HMW PAHs onto MGAC in soil washing was non-spontaneous and endothermic as the values of Gibbs free energy (∆G˚>0) and Enthalpy change (∆H˚>0) were positive. In the fourth phase, the efficiency of MGAC-CoP in surfactant-enhanced soil washing for the PAH removal and the recovery of the surfactant solution was studied. The effective parameters of soil washing with the surfactant (Tween 80) were assessed using a real contaminated soil sample, and the results showed that 5% Tween 80, a liquid to soil ratio of 10:1, and a 72-hour washing time at 20°C were optimum operating conditions. Under these conditions, the average PAHs removal efficiency was 67.6%, which was higher than the 47.4% obtained for the same soil with no surfactant addition in phase 3. The possibility of recycling and reusing the Tween 80 solution was investigated by adding MGAC-CoP to the soil and surfactant solution mixture during the soil washing process. For this purpose, 5% Tween 80 and 2% (w/w) MGAC were used in 7 successive washing cycles, with no regeneration process for the MGAC composite. The results revealed that the combination of surfactant and MGAC was capable of removing 68.6, 70.7, 70.3, 61.6, 55.5, 50.2, and 39.4% of the PAHs from soil in the 7 washing cycles, respectively. Furthermore, the recycled Tween 80 and non-regenerated MGAC did not produce any waste or effluent after 6 times reuse in the treatment process, while successfully recovered and reused. This implies that soil washing with Tween 80 and MGAC is a very affordable, efficient, and practical method for remediation of PAH-contaminated soils.

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Recent hydrodynamic studies suggest that small air bubbles can be used to improve the performance of column flotation. Tests carried out at Virginia Tech during the past several years have shown that various types of inline motionless (or static) mixers can successfully produce microbubbles for column flotation. Unfortunately, few guidelines exist for selecting the proper size and type of motionless mixer for generating microbubbles. In the present work, the mean bubble size produced by various types of in-line motionless mixers has been experimentally determined over a wide range of operating conditions and generator geometries. Test results indicate that generator performance is described by a series of expressions derived from a dimensional analysis. These expressions demonstrate that bubble diameter is primarily determined by the generator geometry and a dimensionless term known as the Weber number. Tests have also been conducted to determine the reduction in the performance of centrifugal pumps under air admitting conditions. A semi-empirical pump model has been utilized which allows the proper size of pump to be selected for microbubble generation. This information should prove useful for the design and operation of microbubble generation circuits on an industrial scale. / Master of Science

The purpose of this research was to determine if two commonly used soil-washing extracting agents, namely EDTA and nitric acid, could be recycled and reused in subsequent soil-washing processes. This research focuses on the removal of lead from three real-world soils collected from military installations and the evaluation of a chelating polymer termed Type-M Forager® Sponge to recycle the soil-washing effluent. The results of this experiment indicate that the EDTA soil-washing effluent was as effective at removing lead from soil after two recycle processes as it was during the initial simulated soil-washing process. The nitric acid extracting agent solution, however, was neutralized during the first soil-washing simulation for each of the soils tested. Therefore, the Type-M Forager® Sponge was evaluated and proved to be effective as a waste minimization process for the acid soil-washing effluents.

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No description available.

Hand hygiene is generally considered to be the most important measure that can be applied to prevent the spread of healthcare-associated infection (HAI). Continuous emphasis on this intervention has lead to the widespread opinion that HAI rates can be greatly reduced by increased hand hygiene compliance alone. However, this assumes that the effectiveness of hand hygiene is not constrained by other factors and that improved compliance in excess of a given level, in itself, will result in a commensurate reduction in the incidence of HAI. However, several researchers have found the law of diminishing returns to apply to hand hygiene, with the greatest benefits occurring in the first 20% or so of compliance, and others have demonstrated that poor cohorting of nursing staff profoundly influences the effectiveness of hand hygiene measures. Collectively, these findings raise intriguing questions about the extent to which increasing compliance alone can further reduce rates of HAI. In order to investigate these issues further, we constructed a deterministic Ross-Macdonald model and applied it to a hypothetical general medical ward. In this model the transmission of staphylococcal infection was assumed to occur after contact with the transiently colonized hands of HCWs, who, in turn, acquire contamination only by touching colonized patients. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of imperfect hand cleansing on the transmission of staphylococcal infection and to identify, whether there is a limit, above which further hand hygiene compliance is unlikely to be of benefit. The model demonstrated that if transmission is solely via the hands of HCWs, it should, under most circumstances, be possible to prevent outbreaks of staphylococcal infection from occurring at a hand cleansing frequencies <50%, even with imperfect hand hygiene. The analysis also indicated that the relationship between hand cleansing efficacy and frequency is not linear - as efficacy decreases, so the hand cleansing frequency required to ensure R0<1 increases disproportionately. Although our study confirmed hand hygiene to be an effective control measure, it demonstrated that the law of diminishing returns applies, with the greatest benefit derived from the first 20% or so of compliance. Indeed, our analysis suggests that there is little benefit to be accrued from very high levels of hand cleansing and that in most situations compliance >40% should be enough to prevent outbreaks of staphylococcal infection occurring, if transmission is solely via the hands of HCWs. Furthermore we identified a non-linear relationship between hand cleansing efficacy and frequency, suggesting that it is important to maximise the efficacy of the hand cleansing process.

Although froth flotation is generally recognized as the most viable means of cleaning fine coal, a loss in recovery rate and selectivity is encountered when attempting to apply the process to clean ultrafine coals. In this work, batch flotation tests were conducted on several Appalachian coals using microbubbles in a cylindro-conical flotation column. Results indicate that this technique shows improvements over the conventional technique using larger bubbles, when the coal is ultrafine. The improvement in recovery rate with the microbubbles is due to improved hydrodynamic conditions which are more conducive to bubble/particle collision, while the improvement in selectivity is due to the absence of turbulent wakes. / M.S.